Monsters
by Laughing Still
Summary: "But Shika, there's monsters." Ino always knew who to run to when she got scared, and somehow Shikamaru never minded. ShikaIno


_Monsters_

_By _

_Dreaming Again _

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, wish I did, but I don't.

The first time it happened, there were no witnesses and the hero and heroine of this story were too small to remember it. Two babies had been lying outside on a blanket playing while their dutiful mothers watched them, only a few feet away. The babies, one blond and one brunette were named Yamanaka Ino and Nara Shikamaru respectively and they were a different as their names. Shikamaru, the boy, was lying quietly on the blanket fast asleep, his hair pulled back in a tiny spiky ponytail. Yamanaka Ino, the girl, was crawling around babbling to herself and when she wasn't talking, chewing on the ear of her bright pink stuffed piggy. No one remembers quite how it happened but somehow, Ino managed to crawl off the blanket and onto the grass. Perhaps she was bored and wanted one of the toys she had thrown off or she needed more stuff to bury Shikamaru with. Yes, Shikamaru was currently barely visible due to a stuffed ducky, a block, half of his own special blankey, a fake deer, Ino's bottle and her pacifier, some grass which Ino herself had torn up, one of those musical things that parents hate and kids adore and a unicorn, belonging to Ino which was twice the size of either of the two babies.

Anyway, back to the little girl responsible for this heap. Being the adventurous girl that she is and was, Ino crawled farther, tearing up more fistfuls of grass and even eating some to see if she liked it. She was just reaching for another chunk when a grasshopper, fearful for its life as Ino's hand came towards it, suddenly bounced up and onto her arm. Ino screamed, terrified, and shook her arm to get it off. It wasn't working. She opened her mouth to scream louder for her mother when, out of nowhere, she felt something else touch her. Looking around, she discovered a tiny hand on her the back of her leg and it's owner looking at her with a bored expression on his face.

"Ee un…" Ino hesitated.

He mumbled something and, taking his hand back, laid down in the grass on his back and promptly went to sleep again.

Ino stared at him, and curious, decided to see if he really was asleep. Not even her daddy fell asleep _that_ fast. Crawling toward the sleeping boy, she stopped right beside him and…poked him.

He didn't move.

She tore up some grass and threw it on him. His face twitched slightly but other than that, he was still.

"E e." she said, hoping he'd move at least. He did. He rolled over…

Right on top of her, effectively pinning her to the ground.

For a second, Ino was so shocked she couldn't move. Then she realized just what was happening and she opened her mouth to scream but instantly found it filled with grass. She didn't care for that so, being the smart girl she is, she closed her mouth and settled for a different course of action. She tried squirming out from under him. No such luck. He only moved where she did and he weighed about a ton.

Ino whimpered softly, scared. While she tried to think of another way get him off, her eyes slowly began to drift close, the soft grass, silence, and the warmth surrounding her working their magic on her.

10 minutes later, when two frantic mothers stumbled across them, their hearts melted at the scene. Shikamaru was lying half on top of Ino, using her as a substitute for his crib and fast asleep. Ino herself was half buried in the grass, sleeping peacefully, one hand clenched around the fabric of Shika's sleeve.

The second time, they were 5 and Ino was sleeping over at the Nara's house as both her parents were on a mission. All was quiet as the family had long since gone to bed and the faint moonlight peeping into the house only added to the peace.

Shikamaru heard his door creak open and turned reluctantly to see a small blond head coming toward him.

"GoawayIno." He moaned, rolling back over away from her.

"Shika, I'm scared. There's monsters under my bed."

He felt the bed sink a few inches as she crawled onto it.

"There aren't any monsters under your bed. Go to sleep."

"Yes there are!" She said in a fierce whisper. "I heard them! They were planning to eat me!"

Shikamaru rolled his eyes. This was pathetic. He had never done this. When one of the boys—Kiba or someone like that—had told him there were monsters under his bed, Shika had spent half the night thinking up over 1000 reasons why this wasn't true and logical explanations for each of his reasons, and then, deciding it was too troublesome to continue, hit the hay. Now here he was with a frightened girl who was convinced that the bed sheets were going to kill her because the monsters were pulling on them, trying to force her out of the bed.

He sighed. "Ino, there are no monsters. Go back to your own room."

"Yes there are!" she repeated, voice cracking.

Shika rolled back over to look at her and knew it was a mistake the instant he saw her. Her eyes, already large with fright, were swimming with tears that were threatening fall any second. She was clutching her favorite doll tightly to her chest as though it was her only safety and he could tell by her posture that she was exhausted but couldn't sleep for her fright.

He opened his mouth to tell her to go away but somehow, the words got lost on the way from his brain to his vocal chords.

"Shi-ka." She begged, bouncing up and down slightly so the whole bed moved. "Pleeease?"

"Troublesome girl." He muttered. "Fine, but don't touch me. I don't want any icky girl germs."

In response, she pulled the covers back and placed her pillow by his.

"You better not kick or—" He stopped as he felt a hand creep up and rest on his shoulder. He glanced at the girl beside him and found to his amazement (and secret amusement) that she was already asleep, her doll still clutched to her chest.

He sighed again. "Troublesome girl."

Nevertheless, he didn't move a centimeter while he was awake.

The third time, they were 12. It was their very first mission away from Konoha and their first overnight as well. All had gone fairly well, Ino hadn't liked dinner but she could deal with that, and now Shikamaru was trying to ignore the way a particularly sharp rock was digging into his shoulder blades and fall asleep. Normally, sleep came to him within seconds regardless of what surface he was lying on at the moment but tonight, for some reason, sleep was evading him. Wait a minute. What was that noise?

Shika turned his head to see the zipper of his tent slowly being pulled down. He froze, wondering if he was about to become the midnight snack of some hungry carnivore.

"Shika?"

"Ino?! What do you want?" He snapped, sitting bolt upright. It came out harsher than he intended but his mind had suddenly envisioned the hundreds of ways he could be eaten and none of them appealed to him.

"I'm scared."

She was scared. His blood pressure was through the roof, he heart was going 110 miles an hour, and he was drenched in a cold sweat as a result of his over active imagination treating him to a terrifying vision of himself digesting in the stomach of some hideous creature, and Ino was scared?

He was going to murder her after this.

"You're scared?" he repeated, voice drowning in sarcasm and scorn.

"Mm-hmm." She nodded, one hand around her favorite pink pig and the other—

"What's that?" He demanded, spotting the lump in her right hand.

"My sleeping bag, what did you think stupid?"

"No, absolutely not. Go back to your own tent." He laid back down and rolled on his side, away from Ino.

"Shika, pleeeeese?" she whined. He could sense her sit down and knew she was staring at his back.

"No. Go away."

There was silence and Shika was beginning to think she had left when he heard a soft rustling and turned his head a fraction of an inch, just enough to see her out of the corner of his eye. She was smoothing out her sleeping bag and fluffing her pillow slightly.

"Ino…."he warned. "There aren't any monsters out there. Go back to your own tent."

"Yes there are!"She insisted, sitting on her sleeping bag and crossing her arms over her chest. "I _heard _them!"

"Oh really? What do they sound like? Chouji snoring?"

She was silent and Shika smirked—until he saw her crawl into her sleeping bag next to him.

"No you don't. Get out."

"Shut up Shika, you'll wake Asuma-sensei. Besides, it's cold in my tent." She rolled onto her side so her back was toward him.

"Hn." He said irritated. Both of them knew there weren't any monsters out there. Wild animals yes, monsters, no. So why the heck was she bugging him tonight?

Something howled outside and he felt his blood run cold. Almost instinctively, he moved ever so slightly closer to Ino. OK, so maybe there was something to be said about sleeping together.

The fourth time, they were 16. The whole team was in Wave Country and they had just successfully completed their mission. Exhausted, they had opted to stay the night and head out early the next day. Somehow, Shika had wound up with a room to himself and he was just in that awkward stage between dosing and falling asleep when he heard a soft knock. Groaning, he got up, crossed the room, and opened the door. There, standing in the hallway, was Ino in her pajamas, carrying her pillow and her small stuffed cat.

"I can't sleep. It's too…dark in my room. Can I stay with you?"

"You're scared, aren't you?" he asked, slightly irked.

Blushing, she nodded, not meeting his eyes. "I don't like it here." She whispered. "It's too dark, and evil. I want to go home."

He sighed. "We'll be there tomorrow. It'll go faster if you go back to your own room and go to sleep. Troublesome woman."

She stiffened slightly at the last comment but otherwise ignored it. "Shika, Please? My room's too big…and there's monsters."

He raised an eyebrow. "That's not going to work this time, Ino. Go back to your own room. We're teens now. What do you think Asuma would do if he found us in the same room?"

"I'll sleep on the floor. I brought my blankets. Please Shika? I just want to be with you."

He barely caught the last part as it was whispered but when he did, his heart stopped for a second and his eyes widened. Ino wanted to be with him? What on earth? Did that mean she liked him? Well, he knew she liked him as a friend but now did she like _like _him? The thought unnerved him.

"Shika?"

He came back to reality, shoving all romance connected thoughts into the back of head to dwell on later.

"Fine." He grunted. "But you're going to be the one to tell Asuma why you're here."

"Fine." She smiled and followed him. "Night."

"Hn." He said, climbing back into his bed and watching her set up her own on the floor. She was quiet, unlike the last time.

"Night." She said again as she crawled into her cocoon.

"Yep." He replied, staring out the window. He heard her moving slightly and waited for her to talk again, wondering if his previous thoughts had any logic at all to them or whether it was just his over worked brain. He rolled the thought of him and Ino dating around in his head and nearly smacked himself as he shifted. No way. They would kill each other in two seconds flat. It wasn't going to happen and he was fine with that.

He turned to tell her that she better not try to pull anything only to find her fast asleep. He sat up, thinking. The floor really was pretty hard and she would be cranky tomorrow if she didn't sleep well and _that _would be troublesome for all of them. It had nothing to do with the fact that he was suddenly very cold and he had learned when they were 5 that she was a radiator. Nor did it have anything to do with these newly formed half dreams half hopes that he had forcibly locked way.

Sighing about how troublesome she was, he picked her up slowly bridal style and was amazed at how light she was. He could carry her like this forever. Wait, did he want to?

Shaking his head, he laid her on the far side of the bed (luckily it was a double) and pulled his own covers over her. Then, careful not to disturb her, he pulled the top two blankets off and, wrapping them around himself, collapsed onto the couch that Ino had failed to notice earlier.

"Troublesome woman." He thought before finally falling asleep.

The fifth time, they were 21. They were on a mission again and it had been an A-ranked assassin/ espionage and so, they had divided and conquered, Ino gathering the intel, and the rest of them taking out the requested people. During the fight, Ino had gotten a nasty cut on her leg in addition to a broken ankle. Thanks to Hinata, she was now properly taken care of and resting in her bed. The entire team was, the newly wed Naruto and Hinata in their room, Kiba and Akamaru in theirs and Shika was supposed to be in his but instead he was wandering down the hallway at 1 in the morning because he couldn't sleep. That had been way to close a call for Shikamaru's taste and now he had finally decided it was too troublesome to ignore and had gotten out of bed.

He knocked softly on her bedroom door and waited for a response. None came. Tentatively trying the handle, it yielded and he entered noiselessly. She was on her bed, facing away from him, sound asleep. He walked forward and saw that her face was grimaced slightly in pain. His own heart twisted and, without really thinking about it, he reached down and tucked some stray hairs behind her ear.

"Shikamaru? What is it? Do we have to go now?" She asked sleepily, stirring.

Great, he had woken her up. Hinata would kill him.

"No…we have a few more hours. Go back to sleep."

"Why are you here?" She asked, fixing those sky-blue eyes on him. When he didn't answer, she sat up and scooted over, patting the now empty space beside her. Blushing slightly, Shikamaru sat next to her, avoiding her eyes.

"Did you want to tell me something?" She asked, one ice cold hand on his upper arm. He resisted the urge to shiver and gazed stubbornly at her blanket covered knee.

"How are you feeling?" he asked suddenly.

"Better, just tired." She answered, leaning against the wall. Shikamaru instantly felt an enormous wave of guilt wash over him. Of course she would be tired, anyone would with the way she fought. Silence fell, Shika not being able to think of a topic of conversation and Ino too tired to.

He suddenly felt something on his shoulder and looked down to find Ino using it as a pillow. He smiled very slightly, though at the same time, he couldn't help rolling his eyes. That girl.

"So are you going to tell me why you came here or am I just going to have to guess?"

Shika jumped as she spoke.

"Troublesome." He muttered as he searched for a reasonable excuse to give her. He would die before he told her the real reason, so he settled for part of it. She was too tired to draw anything from it and besides, after all the times she'd pulled this stunt, it was his turn.

"Because…there's monsters."

He saw her smile slightly, remembering the excuse. "There aren't any monsters out there. Go back to your own room."

"Yes, there are. I _heard _them." He smirked, thinking drily that for all the times they had said this, this was the most truthful.

"Oh? And what do they sound like? Kiba snoring?" Ino asked, looking at him, smiling sleepily.

He hesitated a minute, looking at her. He could tell her what they sounded like. They sounded like a kunai and shuriken whistling toward someone, and they sounded like weapons hitting their mark, one on her leg, and the other breaking her ankle. They sounded like her body hitting the ground and his heart stopping as he thought, for one terrible moment, that she was gone. The memory made his stomach clench and his fists close.

"Shika?"

He looked to see her hand millimeters from his face.

"You alright?"

_Don't wind her up. Don't wind her up._ He ordered himself sternly. She had to rest and he was not helping matters.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Night Ino, see you in the morning." He got up and moved to go to the door when he felt a hand close over his wrist.

"Wait, this isn't how it ends." She said, moving to where he had been seconds before. "You're supposed to stay."

He paused, looking at those eyes that really weren't sky blue as everyone said they were. They were evening blue, and there was a world of difference between the two.

"Next time." He promised softly, leaning down and kissing her forehead gently.

She nodded, stunned and released him. And as he walked out the door, he swore to himself that this time would also be the last time he ever spent a night without her.

The next time, they were 26 and they were in Konoha. Shikamaru was sitting on his bed in his new house gazing out the window and watching the sun set, relaxing after the hectic day. It had been far more troublesome than he'd ever wanted it but he didn't regret it. Not many times in his life had a day gone perfectly, and thanks be to Kami, today, all had.

He could hear Ino finishing up in the shower as the water clicked off and 3 minutes later, he felt the mattress sink slightly as she came and knelt beside him.

"Whatcha thinking about?" she asked as she kissed him on the cheek. He didn't answer right away, inhaling her scent. She smelled like linen, he decided. Clean and comforting.

"Monsters." He smiled as he turned toward her.

"What? Still scared of them?" she teased, smiling back.

"No." he looked at her left hand, the ring he'd placed there only hours ago glittering brightly. "I'm grateful. They gave me the best thing I have."

_**Fin**_


End file.
